First thing to do today. Trudge up to reception to see if I can use the extortionately expensive wifi I have paid for. No. Not working. Complained to reception that if they charge so much they should make sure it works. Point taken, but, no refund offered for my unused €4 worth of time. Otherwise excellent campsite downgraded in my personal records by 1 point. Second thing – look in astonishment at the massacre which has taken place in the field at the bottom of the campsite (the combine harvester carried on working well after dark had fallen). Those lovely sunflowers, albeit with yellow petals nearly all gone and seeds just ripe for the birds and the picking, have all been Decapitated. All that is left is a field full of tall stalks. Next thing to ... read more

Time to move on, almost directly south, over the Vezere and then the Dordogne river and down to the Ger in beautiful pastoral Gascony. Bob and Clarissa Tomtom had planned a route last night which went in a pretty straight line and took us along roads we had not used before. We were quite surprised by this as we thought we had probably seen all the stretches of the Dordogne that there are to see but we took a road south from Campagne, a rather attractive town on the Vezere, to Siorac-en-Perigord on the Dordogne, and decided we had not been this way before. I am about to correct that, we have been to Siorac before. In June 2003 we stayed in a gite in Mouzens just over the river, with Nigel and Lynne and ... read more

A busy Saturday on the roads to the coast today so we were pleased to be heading inland. We saw a mile long traffic jam queuing for a roundabout near Rochefort and concluded it was holiday traffic. On such a gorgeous sunny day not surprising if the while of France is heading for the coast. We left Ile de Réa a little reluctantly as we always love visiting the island and this last three days have been wonderfully relaxing, made more so by the fantastic weather. We got on very well with our Netherlands neighbours on one side. The English couple of the other side however were really quite rude and didn’t speak or even nod a good morning, to us, or anyone else for that matter, which is not at all the way to behave ... read more

Early (ish – we are on holiday !) start to the day as we were visiting the lovely market in La Flotte which is mornings only and very busy. There are two excellent fish stalls but unfortunately we don’t recognize many varieties of fish on sale and also have the problem of not wanting to prepare anything too ‘fish smelly’ in the Tandy. I decided to take the easy option and buy sea bass. The first stall didn’t have any (I discovered this only after accidentally jumping the queue to the indignation of the French lady at the front). The second stall did so I pointed at a nice plump fish and asked for it to be filleted. Oops really should have checked the price first. So expensive I am not going to say here how ... read more

Had a pleasantly disturbed sleep. There seemed to be owls all round, hooting and toowit toowooing at each other, and as it was such a lovely clear night the sounds carried right across the campsite. I note that now as I type this the evening serenade has already started. This really is a lovely place, beautifully green and very peaceful, except for the owls that is. What a glorious day. Exactly as forecast, summer has finally arrived and long may it last. First day I have put on shorts and sun-top as soon as I got up and the first day I have needed suntan lotion. We scootered into Coulon, only a couple of miles, along the river and followed a couple of 'no entry', 'locals only' signs to the riverbank where we parked the scooter. ... read more